I Love Her Because She’s Dim-Witted And Filthy Rich - Chapter 5

During a break for a late-night snack, Duan Bainian casually chatted about her work over the years, drawing a series of gasps of admiration from Su Miao.

“How have you been to so many places? I was born in Beijing, grew up in Beijing, went to school in Beijing… I’ve never been anywhere except Beijing. This is my first time in Hengdian, too.”

Duan Bainian was once again surprised by this “silly girl’s” limited horizons. “Once you start filming more in the future, you’ll go to many places as well.”

Su Miao nodded, seeming to understand only half of it. “Then, where is your hometown?”

Duan Bainian replied, “Qingyang, Gansu. It’s a prefecture-level city. Have you heard of it?”

Su Miao shook her head in a daze. “No… I only know Lanzhou, Gansu.”

Su Miao thought for a moment and added, “But I guess Qingyang must be a very beautiful place.”

Duan Bainian smiled. “Why do you say that?”

Su Miao said with a face full of sincerity, “You are so beautiful, so your hometown must be beautiful too.”

This was truly… impossible to argue with.

Duan Bainian looked at Su Miao with a beaming smile. “Where exactly do you think I am beautiful?”

Su Miao looked a bit troubled.

Whether a person was good-looking or not was usually just a matter of the first impression—the “eye bond.” How was she supposed to explain the reasons behind it?

She struggled for a long while without coming up with anything, so she finally just blurted out, “Anyway, you just look good—super good-looking. You’re the best-looking person I’ve ever seen.”

Duan Bainian was instantly amused. She naturally knew she was beautiful; people had praised her for having captivating eyes, others for her fair and smooth skin, and some said her smile made it impossible to look away.

With so many things to praise, how did it end up as just a dry “you look good” when it came out of Su Miao’s mouth?

At two in the morning, the two of them returned to the hotel.

The fire had been small; except for a few rooms on the west side, the other rooms were unaffected.

Before they parted, Duan Bainian instructed, “Remember to wake up early tomorrow morning. I’ll help you go over your lines.”

Su Miao smiled, showing a row of pearly white teeth. “Okay!”

At six-thirty, Su Miao arrived right on time.

Duan Bainian hadn’t slept well and woke up with a bit of a headache. However, thinking that the “silly girl” was definitely waiting for her, she forced herself out of bed.

Perhaps because of their friendly interaction the previous night, the little “dummy” relaxed a lot in front of her, which led to her memorizing lines much faster.

Duan Bainian sensed it acutely, but she wasn’t entirely sure. “Is your memory better when you’re relaxed?”

Su Miao rubbed her nose sheepishly. “It seems so.”

Duan Bainian laughed. “Then that’s easy to handle. Just treat me as a friend. That way, wouldn’t you be able to be more relaxed?”

Su Miao’s reaction, however, was a bit strange. “Treat you as a friend?”

Duan Bainian was also confused. “Yeah, what’s wrong?”

Su Miao didn’t speak for a long while.

Duan Bainian explained, “Just act the way you do in front of friends when you’re with me. Making relaxation your primary goal.”

Su Miao became awkward all over. “I… I don’t have any friends.”

Duan Bainian was surprised. “You don’t have friends? Why?”

Su Miao spoke hesitantly. “I… I was too… too stupid when I was in school. They didn’t really like playing with me.”

Duan Bainian thought to herself: You’re still pretty stupid now.

Duan Bainian thought for a moment and asked, “The male students didn’t play with you either?” Su Miao was good-looking; logically, she should have been quite popular with boys.

Su Miao shook her head. “My mom was afraid I’d be taken advantage of, so she didn’t let me have much contact with boys.”

Duan Bainian nodded. “I see.”

Actually, speaking of which, Duan Bainian didn’t have friends either.

Having good social skills was one thing, but in her heart, she had never truly considered anyone a friend. She didn’t need friends.

But clearly, Su Miao was different from her. Su Miao… she wanted to make friends.

Duan Bainian smiled and said, “Actually, you’re quite good-looking. If you take the initiative to make friends with others, they probably won’t refuse you.”

This wasn’t just empty flattery. Su Miao had a clean, fair complexion, a face the size of a palm, and large, dark eyes. The corners of her eyes drooped slightly, giving her a youthful and innocent look.

There was only one downside: the more you looked at her, the more you wanted to reach out and tease her.

Hearing Duan Bainian’s praise, Su Miao didn’t respond.

Duan Bainian continued, “Don’t put too much psychological pressure on yourself. As a newcomer with zero experience, you’re already doing quite well. When I filmed my first movie playing a maid, the director was so angry at me that his blood pressure wouldn’t go down, and they had to call 120 to take him to the hospital. You are much better now than I was back then.”

Su Miao looked incredulous. “Did you really make a director get sent to the hospital from anger?”

Of course it was fake.

It was true that a director had been sent to the hospital from anger, but it wasn’t her who caused it; it was another actress.

But when it comes to comforting someone, if you don’t describe yourself as even more miserable or worse off, how can you achieve the desired effect?

Duan Bainian nodded. “Really. Later, when the director came back from the hospital and saw me, he got a headache and just threw me into the B-unit to film.”

Su Miao’s last bit of psychological baggage finally lifted. She gave Duan Bainian a shy look. “Then let’s continue.”

This time, Su Miao performed very well.

Duan Bainian blinked. “See? Isn’t this great?”

Su Miao was a bit excited, her breathing becoming hurried. “I… I didn’t expect to get through it in one go either.”

Duan Bainian patted Su Miao’s head again. “Just perform like this later. Don’t be afraid of Wu Yang. What’s there to be afraid of? You’re my student. If he’s mean to you again, I’ll back you up. Don’t be a coward, you hear me?”

Su Miao nodded vigorously. “I hear you!”

Perhaps those words in the morning gave Su Miao confidence; when the official filming started, she really didn’t trip over her lines.

The director said in surprise, “Oh, Su Miao, aren’t you quite capable? Come on, let’s do another take and see if you can perform even better!”

Even Wu Yang gave Su Miao a surprised look but said nothing.

After finishing the scene, Su Miao couldn’t wait to walk over to Duan Bainian. “Did you see that just now?! I didn’t get stuck even once!”

Duan Bainian smiled. “I saw. You were great.”

Su Miao became shy again. “No way, you’re much more amazing than I am.”

At two in the afternoon, Duan Bainian accompanied Su Miao on set to practice her lines.

They were about to film an assassination scene.

The Princess Consort is implicated and suffers a late-night assassination attempt. The Princess Consort, who has no self-defense skills, rolls off the bed and dodges around the room to escape.

During a break for adjustments, Duan Bainian rested and drank some water. A fellow actress in the cast, Li Man, leaned in and whispered, “Wasn’t there a rumor that you hate her? But you seem quite invested in her?”

Duan Bainian smiled. “Just helping her run lines.”

Li Man clicked her tongue repeatedly. “You really are something, not even getting angry after having your role snatched away.”

Duan Bainian said, “That’s in the past now. Why talk about it anymore?”

Li Man said, “Alright, I admire your broad-mindedness. But then again, this Su Miao usually feels like a very haughty person. I didn’t expect her to be so enthusiastic toward you.”

Duan Bainian couldn’t help but defend Su Miao. “She’s just embarrassed to talk to you guys. The girl is actually quite nice.”

Li Man dismissed this with a scoff. “I don’t know if she’s nice or not, I just hope her acting can be a bit better. That group scene yesterday—if it wasn’t for her, would we have had to film it over twenty times?”

Duan Bainian felt a faint flicker of displeasure and was just about to explain for Su Miao when she heard a “thud” not far away.

She looked over toward the sound. It was Su Miao, who had lost her balance while rolling off the prop bed and planted her head right onto the edge of the bed frame.

Duan Bainian rushed forward to find Su Miao sitting on the floor with a dazed expression.

She was clearly stunned by the impact and hadn’t recovered yet.

Duan Bainian brushed back Su Miao’s hair to take a look; a small scratch had opened up on her cheek, just a tiny bit of skin broken.

Duan Bainian gave Su Miao a little shake. “Does it hurt?”

Su Miao instinctively touched the wound and hissed in pain.

The wound was actually very small—just a bit of broken skin without any bleeding. It would recover in two or three days. There was really no need to treat such a wound; Duan Bainian had just asked casually.

Unexpectedly, Su Miao grabbed her in a panic. “Am I… am I going to be disfigured?”

Duan Bainian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She opened the front camera on her phone. “Look at this wound. Can this disfigure you?”

Su Miao was incredibly anxious. “But the wound is on my face! I’m only slightly good-looking; if I leave a scar, I’ll have nothing left…”

These words made Duan Bainian both annoyed and amused. Was it necessary to worry about such a tiny scratch to this extent?

Duan Bainian sighed softly. “Have you ever seen a joke on the internet?”

Su Miao looked blank. “What?”

Duan Bainian said, “Someone got a cut on their hand and went to the hospital. The doctor said, ‘It’s a good thing you got here in time; otherwise, the wound would have healed itself.'”

Su Miao naturally picked up on the teasing in Duan Bainian’s voice.

She lowered her eyes, stole a glance at Duan Bainian, kept her mouth shut, and didn’t say a word.

Duan Bainian held back a laugh. “Stop worrying. Let’s go, ask the director for leave and go to the hospital.”

At the hospital, after cleaning the wound and applying medicine, the nurse reminded them not to eat foods like soy sauce or vinegar before moving on to the next patient.

Su Miao, still not at ease, chased after the nurse to ask, “It really won’t leave a scar, right?”

The nurse was busy to death and had no time to pay attention to Su Miao, focusing only on talking to the patient at hand without even looking at her.

Duan Bainian was truly defeated by Su Miao’s train of thought. “Don’t worry. This kind of wound won’t even be visible by tomorrow. How could it possibly leave a scar?”

Only then did Su Miao follow Duan Bainian out of the hospital with a sheepish expression.

Outside the hospital, the assistant Xiao Song was waiting in the car at the entrance.

After getting in the car, Su Miao took a small gift box from Xiao Song; it was a bracelet she had asked Xiao Song to buy at a nearby mall just now.

Su Miao promptly handed the box to Duan Bainian. “This is for you.”

Looking at the outer packaging, Duan Bainian guessed it was some kind of jewelry. Because she didn’t know the approximate price and worried it was expensive, she didn’t really want it.

Duan Bainian hesitated. “Why are you giving me this?”

Seeing that Duan Bainian wouldn’t accept it, Su Miao got a bit anxious. “Just take it.”

Duan Bainian joked, “It’s not a holiday or a special occasion. Why give a gift? Keep it for yourself.”

After several attempts to give it and Duan Bainian refusing to take it, Su Miao’s face gradually turned red. She spoke stutteringly, “Didn’t… didn’t you say this morning that I could treat you as a friend?”

“Giving… giving a friend a gift… isn’t… isn’t it very normal?”

Duan Bainian burst out laughing. “Giving a friend a gift is just giving a friend a gift. Why are you stuttering?”